It’s always a blast to find yourself in the local paper. Even more interesting is the perspective.

What you see here is a bunch of fun-loving romance writers whooping it up in the Great Outdoors. What I see is the Mikey Mason t-shirt I wore in honor of Mikey making some Grand Proclamation that morning to his Patreon followers…and the heart that Amy gave me after taking this photo, the one I wrote Kathryn‘s name on days later when she was going through her complicated heart surgery. I prayed she was going to make it. She did not. But I will light my candles and smile for her anyway, and dance and sing with my writing friends, because that’s exactly what she would have wanted.

The STARs were my first friends in Florida (apart from Bianca, who kidnapped me immediately and claimed me for her own BFF.) They remain some of my dearest friends to this day. THEY GET ME. It is so important to have people in your life who get you.

As I say in this article: “When I first moved here, I didn’t know anyone. The members of STAR instantly welcomed me and understood how important my career was to me. We brainstorm, share trials and errors, tips and tricks, and support one another as often as we can.”

The “Once Upon” series has been so much fun to be a part of…I’m honored to have been included since the first volume. We’ve done Curses and Kisses…this time, it’s all about Quests!

And THIS COVER! Christine shared the art she was going to use before I started writing my story, and I was so incredibly inspired that the character Kira Kobold was 100% based on our cover model. Like, I’m not even kidding. The way I set up my computer screen, “Kira” stared at me with all that warrior-like intensity the entire time I was writing.

Contains Alethea’s short story “The Goblin and the Treasure,” a fairy tale retelling of Hans Christian Andersen.

Out-of-work soldier Kira Kobold is handpicked by the High Wizard Zelwynn to go on a quest. Her companions? A growly ogress, a surly dwarf, a dimwitted troll, and an overly optimistic goblin. The goal? To find the Lost Treasure of Zelwynn, misplaced long ago somewhere in the Great Mountains. This wasn’t exactly the quest she was looking for…

I haven’t had a car for almost two years now. I’m working hard to make this happen, but it’s been a slow process. Tempest helped me set up a site on YouCaring for my Birthday that we called the Birthday Car Fundapalooza, where folks could help pitch in, if they so desired. We made it up to about $1200, but realistically I need to get to $3000 to make this whole business a reality.

And there’s always Patreon — subscribe to the Wonderful World of Princess Alethea and get a certificate proclaiming you a member of the Royal Court of Arilland, a smile in your email every Monday, a random goodie in your mailbox every once in a while, the chance to enter to win mystery prizes, and–depending on your support level–get access to exclusive content!

Sarah and I have made it our goal to get the monthly pledges on my Patreon page up to $1000 before the end of the year. We’re going to be putting out a LOT of fun content this year.

Last month, some yahoo opened his mouth and said something incredibly ignorant about women…so ignorant that his vehement slurs almost tipped over into poetry. As soon as I read the phrase “Career Obsessed Banshee” I thought, THAT’S ME.

One of my fairy goddaughters, having read the same bit of nonsense, was torn between that phrase and a different one, further down in the screed.

While sorting out my library this year, I found multiple boxes of Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology. It was the first book I ever got published, a collection of SF All-Stars edited by me, with an intro by Arthur C. Clarke and a cover by Michael Whelan. I’ve got hardcovers, paperbacks, and ARCs…so if you’d like a particular version, please specify in the notes of your order!

Lily asked a very good question on another post: “What’s the birth order of the Woodcutter siblings?”

Obviously, Monday-Sunday are easy to figure out. It’s one of the reasons I liked using those names–with so many daughters in a family, I could have easily confused my readers. But what about the boys?

At one point during a copyedit of Enchanted, I was forced to change the age of Prince Rumbold, which then changed a lot of the timing references throughout the story. I was forced to make an Excel spreadsheet of the Woodcutter children, with birth dates and ages that each of them where when certain events happened in their lives (Tuesday’s death, Monday’s marriage, Jack Junior’s disappearance, etc).

My good friend Eric James Stone helped me put something together, and I’ve used that grid ever since. I wont’ share the full grid with you (because I still want plausible deniability if I screw something up in the future), but here are the Woodcutter Siblings–brothers and sisters–listed in birth order (including Trix).